Are chestnuts a staple food or a nut? How to eat chestnuts during weight loss to control weight and not gain weight

When it comes to chestnuts, some people call them nuts, while others call them staple foods. Especially for those who are trying to lose weight, they stay away from chestnuts. Although I like to eat them, I heard that chestnuts are high in carbohydrates, so I decided to just hold back.

Are chestnuts a staple food or a nut? How should you eat chestnuts during weight loss to control your weight and not gain weight? Let's talk about it.

1. What is chestnut?

Nuts are divided into two categories: oily nuts and starchy nuts.

Oily nuts include walnuts, pine nuts, pecans, peanuts, melon seeds, almonds, cashews, macadamia nuts, etc. The fat content of most nuts is between 40% and 60%, of which pine nuts and macadamia nuts have a fat content of more than 70%. Peanuts have a lower fat content of only 25.4%[1].

Starchy nuts include chestnuts, lotus seeds (dried), and ginkgo nuts (dried). The starch contents of these nuts are 46.0% (cooked chestnuts), 67.2%, and 72.6% respectively, while the fat content of all nuts is less than 2%[1].

So, according to the classification of food, chestnuts are nuts.

1. Why do some people say chestnuts are a staple food?

It is not without reason that some people regard chestnuts as a staple food. Compared with steamed rice, the carbohydrate content of chestnuts is almost twice that of rice (25.9g/100g), and is comparable to the carbohydrate content of steamed bread (47g/100g). [1]

In terms of calories: for the same 100g, although the calories of chestnuts are 1.8 times that of rice, their protein, dietary fiber, vitamin A, carotene and calcium are 1.8 times, 4 times, 20 times, 240 times and 2.1 times that of rice respectively. [1]

Although chestnuts seem to be high in calories, they are much richer in other nutrients than rice. For those who are losing weight, if you like to eat chestnuts, you can occasionally use it to replace the staple food.

It is recommended to eat about 10 medium-sized ones and 6 large ones. You don’t need to eat rice with this meal.

To summarize:

Chestnuts are actually a "staple food" that has been mixed into the group of nuts. You don't have to refuse chestnuts if you want to lose weight; you can fully enjoy its delicious taste.

However, since chestnuts are nuts, we should still follow the Chinese Dietary Guidelines, which states that 50 to 70 grams per week is enough [2]. As for chestnuts, it is recommended to replace staple food once a week.

References:

[1]. Yang Yuexin. Chinese Food Composition Table 6th Edition. Volume 1[M]. Peking University Medical Press, 2018

[2]. Chinese Nutrition Society. Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents[M]. People's Medical Publishing House, 2016

Original author: Nutritionist Xue Qingxin, first published in "Everyone's Health" magazine